Chief Financial Officer — Interim, Green Hydrogen

The mandate

A policy grant assumed in the investment case is now uncertain, and an anchor equity sponsor withdrew after cost escalation. The CFO left during rebasing, while early development spend continues without agreed capital gates.

The interim must join within three weeks for twelve months through revised investment decision and staged financing. The role dissolves into project finance if the project proceeds, or closes after orderly preservation if it does not.

Handover requires an independently validated levelised-cost model, committed capital for the approved next stage, downside liquidity through decision, and the receiving finance leader accepting the contracts, assumptions and obligation register.

The CFO may halt unapproved spend, negotiate capital within committee parameters and approve payments below ₹2 crore. Final investment decision, equity issuance and offtake terms outside approved ranges require committee consent; technical yield and technology selection remain engineering decisions.

Downstream ammonia expansion, international projects and corporate acquisitions are excluded. The mandate gives the named Indian project an honest financing decision rather than preserving a predetermined go outcome.

Why this seat is open

Grant and sponsor changes invalidated the headline economics used to launch development. Executive departure leaves no finance leader able to challenge sunk-cost momentum. A finite CFO must create a defensible proceed, stage or stop decision and fund only what the board accepts.

What you will own

• Rebuild levelised hydrogen cost from power, electrolyser, water, utilisation, degradation, capex and finance evidence.
• Decide which historic assumptions and capitalised costs require correction or impairment.
• Establish stage gates tied to land, power, technology, offtake, permit and funding evidence.
• Negotiate equity, debt, grant and strategic-capital options inside approved return and control thresholds.
• Maintain a weekly obligation and liquidity view through final investment decision.
• Present proceed, defer and stop cases with explicit probability and sensitivity rather than one-point forecasts.
• Transfer the accepted financial baseline and capital commitments to project finance or orderly closure.

Candidate qualifications

• Chartered accountant or equivalent with more than twenty-two years in energy or infrastructure finance.
• Led financing or final investment decision for hydrogen, renewable, chemicals or other emerging infrastructure.
• Deep command of project models, staged capital, offtake bankability, incentives and technology-performance sensitivities.
• Experience recommending pause or stop when subsidy, sponsor or demand assumptions deteriorated.
• Closed blended equity and debt capital under substantial technical and policy uncertainty.
• Board credibility in separating sunk development cost from forward investment merit.

Non-negotiables

• Can join in Mumbai within three weeks and travel to project, lender and investor meetings.
• No current interest in sponsors, technology vendors or advisers pursuing the project.
• Will support a stop outcome if accepted economics fail board thresholds.
• Available for the fixed twelve-month decision and handover window.

1. 49 words maximum. Confirm your start date and disclose any hydrogen investor or technology relationships.
2. 49 words maximum. Which project model did you rebase after subsidy or sponsor assumptions changed?
3. 49 words maximum. Describe a final investment decision you recommended deferring or stopping, and why.